Aussie ‘Net filtering trial deemed a success despite problems

A round of testing for Australia's Internet filters has concluded. Five of the …

Although not without controversy, the initial testing of the Australian government's Internet filtering system has gone off fairly well, according to reports from some of the participating ISPs. Five of the nine ISPs testing the government's filtering system reported few problems during testing, even though only 15 customers participated at one and a couple of customers at another were unable to access a completely legal porn site. The other four IPs have either yet to comment on the filter's performance or have refused to talk publicly about the results.

Australia's government first announced its intention to add a Great Barrier Reef of sorts around the nation's virtual shores nearly two years ago, in August 2007. Initial testing began in the island state of Tasmania in February 2008, with cost estimates running as high as AUS$189 million (about US$154 million). The filters were originally intended to be on by default, with consumers able to opt out.

Much to the dismay of the program's critics, things changed last October. As details about the country's Cyber-Safety Plan emerged, we learned that all "illegal" content would be blocked for everyone, with no possibility for individuals to opt out. The main government-supplied blacklist would be applied universally, while an "additional material" blacklist targeting age-appropriate content would be optional for users.

Gamers will also sucked into Australia's filter. All games that fail to garner at least a MA 15+ rating will be blocked, meaning that games refused classification by the country's content-rating authorities will not be able to be accessed online. Of course, if the country were to offer something similar to the US and EU's adults-only game rating, that would change.

Although serious doubts have been raised—even by the government—about the efficacy of the filtering system, the initial testing may provide filter proponents with enough ammo to move the plan forward. A "few thousand users" who opted into the test had no difficulties, according to an executive at one of the ISPs testing the filters. "The users have not experienced any problems, they haven’t experienced any service degradation so it’s been a pretty good experience," iPrimus Australia CEO Ravi Bhatia told ARN.

Not all ISP customers were keen to participate in the study, however, leading to some very real concerns about how representative the test results truly are. At Nelson Bay Online, only 15 users—one percent of the customer base—participated. At another ISP, a couple of customers complained that a "standard" porn site had been completely blocked. Two of the nation's largest ISPs, Telstra and InterNode, have completely refused to participate.

Fans of filtering will no doubt use the testing results as evidence that the proposed barrier should be implemented nationwide as soon as possible. The fact that some ISPs saw minimal participation and some customers were unable to access completely legal X-rated sites shows that there are still some serious obstacles to implementing a foolproof filtering scheme.